The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 - J. R. R. Tolkien [119]
8 On Telimpë as the name of the ‘Moon-cauldron’, rather than Silindrin, see p. 79 and 129 note 2.
9 See p. 73, 88. At previous occurrences the name is Urwen, not Urwendi.
10 ‘twixt Erumáni and the Sea’: i.e., the Outer Sea, Vai, the western bound of Valinor.
11 The passage beginning ‘For behold, he desired in this manner…’ on p. 182 and continuing to this point was added on a detached sheet and replaced a very much shorter passage in which Manwë briefly declared his plan, and nothing was said about the powers of the Valar. But I do not think that the replacement was composed significantly later than the body of the text.
12 The earlier reading here was: ‘Then did the Gods name that ship, and they called her Or which is the Sun’, etc.
13 The earlier reading here was: ‘and the Gnomes call her Aur the Sun, and Galmir the goldgleamer’, etc.
14 An isolated note refers to the coming forth of more wholesome creatures when the Sun arose (i.e. over the Great Lands), and says that ‘all the birds sang in the first dawn’.
15 The Aulenossë: see p. 176.
16 This is the first appearance of the Sons of Fëanor.
17 Earlier reading: ‘the silver rose’.
18 Urwendi: manuscript Urwandi, but I think that this was probably unintended.
19 From this point the text of the Tale of the Sun and Moon ceases to be written over an erased pencilled original, and from the same point the original text is extant in another book. In fact, to the end of the Tale of the Sun and Moon the differences are slight, no more than alterations of wording; but the original text does explain the fact that at the first occurrence of the name Gilfanon on p. 189 the original reading was Ailios. One would guess in any case that this was a slip, a reversion to an earlier name, and that this is so is shown by the first version, which has, for ‘many marvellous deeds that Gilfanon may tell’ (p. 194), ‘many marvellous deeds as Ailios shall tell’.
20 From this point the second version diverges sharply from the first. The first reads as follows:
And that is all, methinks,’ said Lindo, ‘that I know to tell of those fairest works of the Gods’ but Ailios said: ‘Little doth it cost thee to spin the tale, an it be of Valinor; it is a while since ye offered us a…..tale concerning the rising of the Sun and Moon in the East, and a flow of speech has poured from thee since then, but now art thou minded to [?tease], and no word of that promise.’ Of a truth Ailios beneath his roughness liked the words of Lindo as well as any, and he was eager to learn of the matter.
‘That is easy told,’ said Lindo…
What follows in the original version relates to the matter of the next chapter (see p. 220 note 2).
Ailios here claims that a promise made by Lindo has not been fulfilled, just as does Eriol, more politely, in the second version. The beginning of the tale in the first version is not extant, and perhaps as it was originally written Lindo did make this promise; but in the second he says no such thing (indeed Eriol’s question was ‘Whence be the Sun and Moon?’), and at the end of his tale denies that he had done so, when Eriol asserts it.
Changes made to names in
The Tale of the Sun and Moon
Amnor < Amnos (Amnos is the form in The Flight of the Noldoli, < Emnon; the form Amnon also occurs, see p. 172).
For changes in the passage on the names of the Sun see notes 12 and 13.
Gilfanon < Ailios (p. 189, at the first occurrence only, see note 19).
Minethlos < Mainlos.
Uolë Kúvion < Uolë Mikúmi, only at the second occurrence on p. 193; at the first occurrence, Uolë Mikúmi was left unchanged, though I have given Uolë Kúvion in the text.
Ship of Morning < Kalaventë (p. 190; i · Kalaventë ‘the Ship of Light’ occurs unemended in the text on p. 188).
the Sunship’s flames < the flames of Kalaventë (p. 193).
Sári < Kalavénë (p. 193, 195. Kalavénë is the form in the original version, see note 19).